The subject matter disclosed herein relates generally to meter technology, and more particularly, to tools for monitoring consumer dependency upon metered services.
Some utility companies, for example, certain electrical or gas service companies, maintain a database of their consumers who are dependent on their services. These consumers having medical or livelihood conditions which make their well-being dependent upon uninterrupted delivery of service. These databases are used by the utility companies to plan and schedule maintenance related service outages and, in the event of an unplanned loss of service, to prioritize service restoration efforts. However, the development and maintenance of these databases rely upon consumers contacting the utility companies to notify them as to the existence of service dependency at a given meter location and updating the utility company as to a change in service dependency at a given meter location. As a result of this data handoff requirement, the databases do not maintain a real-time accurate record of all consumers who are dependent upon services. This lack of accurate real-time data can lead to planned outages which put service dependent users at risk and responses to unplanned outages which involve an inefficient use of service restoration resources.